Affront to the Many Fans of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

As a fan of Kareem's since his days at Power Memorial, I am moved to respond to Mike Downey's column (June 15). It was extraordinarily presumptuous and in error. To assert that he is the only fan of Abdul-Jabbar's in Los Angeles has to be an affront to most of the basketball fans in Los Angeles, not to mention the country.

We have watched him grow from an angry child of the '60s into a thoughtful and mature adult. For many of us, his growth has mirrored our own and he feels like an old friend.

I realize Downey has to come up with unusual slants to earn a living, but his article was hurtful and an insult to those of us who have received so much pleasure watching Kareem play and grow over the years. Abdul-Jabbar spent too many years being genuinely unappreciated and misunderstood. Those years ended long before Downey's ego-motivated article of June 15.